Fanny Crosby was born in 1820 but her father died the same year. She published her first book of poems in 1844 but didn’t become a Christian until 1850. She began using her literary talent to write hymns for church music. She wrote more than 9,000 hymns from 1864 to 1889. Popular hymns such as “Blessed Assurance,” “Tell Me the Story of Jesus,” “To God Be the Glory,” and “All the Way My Savior Leads Me” are among her most popular hymns still sang today.
In addition to writing hymns she traveled alone around the United States speaking at rescue missions, made numerous visits to the White House, and was voted “best known woman in nineteenth-century America.”
All of this was accomplished in spite of her blindness. She became blind at the age of six weeks due to a physician’s mistake. As a result, she learned to compose, edit, then dictate her hymns to someone else who wrote them down (she never learned to read Braile).
Living as a blind woman in the nineteenth-century was difficult. But becoming a Christian at the age of thirty helped Fanny navigate the nineteenth century as a blind woman. Her faith matured over time just as we have seen Habakkuk’s faith mature.
We learned about Habakkuk’s problems in chapter one where he questions God’s inactivity. Habakkuk essentially asks in Habakkuk 1:2–4 “How long will evil continue and when will you stop it?” God answers Habakkuk in Habakkuk 1:5–11 saying, “I’m going to stop it, I know what’s going on, and you’ll be surprised how.” Therefore Habakkuk asks a second question in 1:12—2:1. He questions God’s inconsistency and basically asks, “Why use greater sinners against less sinners?” In chapter two we see Habakkuk’s patience as he accepts God’s response. God provided his second answer to Habakkuk in 2:2–20 in which God basically says, “I have a plan for the future, a message for the faithful, and punishment planned for the Babylonians.” Now we move on to chapter three which reveals Habakkuk’s praise about God.
Habakkuk 3:1–2 reads, “A prayer of Habakkuk the prophet, according to Shigionoth. Lord, I have heard the report about You and I fear. O Lord, revive Your work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make it known; in wrath remember mercy.” (NASB)[1]
In this process we are seeing Habakkuk go from a wonderer, to a watcher, and now to a worshipper. Habakkuk started in gloom, now he ends in glory. Habakkuk went from why to worship. Habakkuk’s faith has been tested (chapter 1), taught (chapter 2), and is triumphant (chapter 3).
If we were to summarize Habakkuk 3:1–2 into one sentence it would be this: Hearing about God’s plans leads Habakkuk to fear God, to encourage God’s plans, and to request mercy from God. In these two verses we learn that revelation from God leads to trust in God.
In our time in Habakkuk 3:1–2 we’ve learned three spiritual lessons from Habakkuk’s prayer. The first thing we learned from Habakkuk’s prayer is that peace in the midst of God’s plans comes when we realize obscurity does not mean invisibility. The second thing we learned from Habakkuk’s prayer is that peace in the midst of God’s plans comes when we fear God. The third thing we learned from Habakkuk’s prayer is that peace in the midst of God’s plans comes when we accept that God’s methods are best even if we don’t understand them.
Habakkuk and Fanny Crosby both learned that God’s plans are best even if we don’t understand them. In Fanny’s first autobiography she wrote, “If perfect earthly sight were offered to me tomorrow, I would not accept it. Although it may have been a blunder on the physician’s part, it was no mistake of God’s. I verily believe it was His intention that I should live my days in physical darkness, so as to be better prepared to sing His praises and incite others so to do. I could not have written thousands of hymns—many of which, if you will pardon me for repeating it, are sung all over the world—if I had been hindered by the distractions of seeing all the interesting and beautiful objects that would have been presented to my notice.”[2]
I’m not sure if most of us would say that? Habakkuk didn’t as he began this book, but later his faith matured and he eventually trusted God and submitted to God’s plans even when he didn’t like God’s plans. May we too trust God’s plans even if we don’t see them or understand them.
[1] Scripture taken from the New American Standard Bible, Copyright The Lockman Foundation 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995. Used by permission.
[2] Richard Stanislaw, “To God Be the Glory: Fanny Crosby,” in More Than Conquerors: Portraits of Believers from All Walks of Life, ed. John Woodbridge (Chicago: Moody, 1992), 108–111.